According to a study published in the BMJ today, a significant increase in cigarette prices would aid millions of people around the world avoid poor health and extreme poverty. The study concluded that people on low incomes have the most to gain, and the researchers argue that modest action by many governments “could yield unprecedented health gains and poverty reduction.” Smoking … Read More

Noortje Uphoff, University of York This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Poverty remains a widespread problem. In the UK, 30% of children are growing up in poverty. More than half of these children are in working households, and poverty is on the rise even for children whose parents … Read More

Alexander Bell, Harvard University; John Van Reenen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Raj Chetty, Stanford University, and Xavier Jaravel, London School of Economics and Political Science This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Innovation is widely viewed as the engine of economic growth. To maximize innovation … Read More

Weekly newspaper columnists most often opine on people and society. Michael Laws, in his weekly Sunday Star Times column, has a particular trenchant for admonishing people with fewer resources than himself. This Sunday, Laws advocated gardening to the poor in “Want to eat well? Simply grow your own food” (Sunday Star Times January 6th). Seldom do weekly columnists … Read More

Sciblogs Archive

Sciblogs is the biggest blog network of scientists in New Zealand, an online forum for discussion of everything from clinical health to climate change. Our Scibloggers are either practising scientists or have been writing on science-related issues for some time. They welcome your feedback!

Sciblogs was created by the Science Media Centre and is independently funded